Capital Equipment News July 2015

One of Hillary Construction’s Cat 140K motor graders working on a new dual carriageway section outside Kroonstad. This is a green field project in the sense that construction of the southbound carriageway is to be built on virgin land adjacent to the N1. CONSTRUCTING SAFER TRANSIT ROUTES

In terms of quantities on the Holfontein to Kroonstad route, there will be approximately one million cubic metres of bulk earthworks; 590 000 m ³ of gravel layer work; 82 000 m ³ of G1 base course; 300 000 tonnes of G4 for the sub-base; and 530 000 m ² of asphalt surfacing. UTFC will also be the final layer on this section. All road materials (G4 sub-base, G1 base course, plus asphalt and concrete aggre- gates) for the various project phases will be sourced from a Ventersburg quarry pit des- ignated by SANRAL and managed by a sep- arate contractor. “The SANRAL specification stipulates that a 40 % RA be incorporated in the new asphalt composition laid,” explains Hillary Construc- tion’s managing director, Trevor Freestone. “In other words, 40% of the existing as- phalt will be milled, crushed, screened and recycled to enable a sustainable pavement solution.” RA screening and crushing will be carried out by Hillary. Aggregate and asphalt materials will be hauled by a newly acquired fleet of ten 8 x 4 on-highway trucks linked to 3 axle pup trail- ers. These truck acquisitions form part of an approximately R75 m investment in capital equipment that includes the new asphalt plant on site. Earthmoving plant deployed includes two lat- est generation CAT 950 GC medium wheel loaders supplied and supported by southern African CAT dealer, Barloworld Equipment. One of the CAT 950 GC units is assigned to Polokwane Surfacing’s asphalt manufacturing

P olokwane based contractor, Hillary Con- struction, is forging ahead on a range of multi-disciplinary contracts nationally, which include two major Free State projects with a combined value of around R720 m. Work is now underway on a South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) project on the N1 (Section 17) heading north from the Holfontein interchange (Km 24) to Kroonstad (Km 45). The contract commenced from Feb- ruary 2015, with a scheduled completion date of February 2018. The project value is approx- imately R560 m. This multi-faceted construction programme was awarded to Polokwane based company, Hillary Construction, which will be responsible for all phases, from bridge and culvert devel- opment, to the final riding surface. There are three bridges involved along this route that will need to be rebuilt, including one over the Blo- emspruit, as well as a road-over-rail bridge. The project entails the creation of a dual car- riageway between Ventersburg and Kroons- tad. This is a green field project in the sense that construction of the southbound carriage- way is to be constructed on virgin land adja-

cent to the N1. Once completed, traffic will be diverted onto the new roadway and thereafter full reconstruction will take place on the ex- isting N1 pavement, which will become the northbound carriageway. Running in parallel as part of the over- all work package is an 18 month SANRAL contract, valued at around R160 m, which commenced in February 2015 and has also been awarded to Hillary Construction. The scope here covers the Kroonstad to Westle- igh section and includes the rehabilitation of the Kroonstad bypass. This project will involve some 60 000 m ³ of recycled sub-base. Meanwhile, pavement sur- facing quantities include 170 000 m ² of BTB (Bitumen Treated Base), followed by 23 000 tonnes of medium grade asphalt, and a final 295 000 m ² layer of Ultra Thin Friction Coarse (UTFC). All asphalt phases will be carried out by Hillary Construction subsidiary, Polokwane Surfacing. Key benefits of using UTFC include less traf- fic noise, and improved rideability since this is a porous asphalt proven to be safer in wet weather as it improves skid resistance.

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